In related news

  • Abortion ban has supercharged Arizona politics. What will GOP legislators do?

    Abortion politics and policy are clashing here like in no other state as the Republican-led Legislature convenes Wednesday to sort out the aftermath of a ruling allowing a statewide ban to take effect within weeks. It adds more uncertainty for a state that has sometimes felt like the center of the political universe since President Biden’s 2020 victory here helped seal his election, prompting the first false cries from former President Trump that the election was rigged. Republicans here are...

  • Arizona state House passes bill to repeal 1864 abortion ban

    On their third attempt in three weeks, Arizona state House lawmakers voted Wednesday to pass a bill that would repeal the near-total ban on abortion from 1864 that was upheld by the battleground state’s Supreme Court earlier this month. After a dizzying course of votes throughout the afternoon, three state House Republicans joined Democrats in approving a repeal of the Civil War-era law that made abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or helps a...

  • Arizona's abortion ban could bring zombie laws back to life in other states

    When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to get an abortion in June 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court “should reconsider” other rights it currently recognizes – like the rights for same-sex couples to have sex and marry. If the Supreme Court overturns legal precedents on these and other issues, old state laws that haven’t been enforced, possibly for centuries, can suddenly spring back to life. This is what happened after the Arizona Supreme Court...